Does Belief in Fictional Realms Cause Fictional Realms to Become Real, Physical Place

[HRSegovia]

[This was my research final last semester. Thought you guys might like the idea; and next time you play, think about this.]

[FONT=&quot]René Segovia[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Eng 104 TR 8:00[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dr. Oldknow[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]11/20/2011[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Does Belief in Fictional Realms Cause Fictional Realms to Become Real, Physical Places, Worlds, or Dimensions[/FONT]​

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"Imaginative readers know the story doesn't end when the covers close; the magic to be found in books is eternal..."[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]- Susan L. Nickerson, Library Journal[/FONT]​

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In 1983, at a very impressionable six-years-old, I was introduced to a phenomenal film: The Neverending Story. It depicted a boy, Bastian, who loved books and fantasized about fictional worlds. While attempting to escape the wrath of school bullies, he hides in a bookstore and encounters a book called The Neverending Story.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The store owner warns Bastian away from the book claiming, “Your books are safe.”[/FONT]
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Bastian steals The Neverending Story and leaves a note claiming he will return it, and he escapes to the school attic where he proceeds to engulf himself in the book. Through the actions of the book’s hero, Atreyu, Bastian finds he is connected to the story, and ultimately is part of the book just as someone, somewhere, is reading about him. At the climax of the film, The Childlike Empress explains to Atreyu, “He has suffered with you. He went through everything you went through. And now, he has come here with you. ... Just as he is sharing all your adventures, other's are sharing his. They were with him when he hid from the boys in the bookstore. ... They were with him when he took the book with the Auryn symbol on the cover, in which he's reading his own story right now” (Petersen 1984), Even at six-years-old, I understood the story was referring to me watching Bastian. This left quite an impression on my six-year-old brain; this film, along with films such as Conan: The Barbarian, and cartoons such as Dungeons & Dragons, and He-Man, would forever draw me to worlds of fiction and fantasy. I could never bear the thought that these worlds were not possible. I wanted them to be real. I never would have dreamed that I would someday write this paper attempting to prove that fictional worlds actually do become real.[/FONT]
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Unfortunately, children are often encouraged to grow-up. The real world, as most seem to call it, is the world in which we live: tangible, interactive, and has a definite impact on our existence such as health, well-being, and mortality. Physics and Ontology teaches, “What exists is what is ‘in’ space and time. This is the formula of the concreteness pattern. As the crucial world is used, physical objects are in physical space and time” (Bergmann 3). Few can argue with the physical perspective of reality: particularly in children versus adults. This reality is what we perceive as real because it is a common ground where our interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships interact. Consider what Dr. Stephen Diamond had to say on the matter:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]“When hallucinations or delusions, for example, become so real for a person that they overpower and nullify objective reality, we call this dangerous state of mind ‘psychosis.’ And when objective reality totally dominates subjective reality, we lose touch with who we really are. Interiority and exteriority are two sides of the same coin we collectively call reality… Too much of either can become pathological” (Diamond 1).[/FONT]
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Diamond’s interpretation of reality seems a logical one with which most of us can relate with little argument; it holds water because it can be verified with little philosophical intrusion. The problem with fictional realms is that we cannot transcend the objective reality and enter the fictional one and vice-versa. We live in a flat-world society that disbelieves these worlds exist because we cannot go there, see them, experience them, nor do they have any impact on the world in which we live. Wizards, magic, dragons, vampires, and anthropomorphic animals, for example, do not exist in our world and therefore we cannot put them to use; so the practicality in believing they exist seems null and counterproductive as opposed to believing in mathematics, science, economics, and history. In order for a person to be prosperous and productive, he or she must maintain a connection with this reality and apply his or her skills in the studies that apply to this reality. As I aged into adulthood the love for fantasy remained, but the distinction between fiction and reality became more defined.[/FONT]
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I was in my early twenties, just divorced, and had a lot of time on my hands when I found, in the Clovis Carver Public Library, a book that depicted a circle of feet on its cover; it was entitled Dancing Wu Li Masters: an Overview of the New Physics. I had already been introduced to the term quantum physics and knew it was connected somehow to time travel, dimensional travel, and all the fun parts of science fiction; though physics never interested me, science fiction did. This book introduced me to mind-blowing concepts and exercises that occur in reality such as the Double Slit Experiment, and physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger and his Cat Thought Experiment. Later, these concepts would resurface in an online post I made for English 211 which I entitled “121 Cubits”1 and postulated the impact of finding writing in a newly discovered chamber in the pyramids of Giza. The article concluded as such:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Someday an official story will be told on the events that led to ‘121 cubits’ and a reality created, but there will be no telling if it is accurate. Instead, history will be changed from what happened to what historians believe happened. This will be the new reality. In literature, fiction or not, these places will be created because we believe them to be so, for they must exist. If they do not, how, then, are we possibly able to experience them? We cannot experience what is not there. Try laughing without a joke. Try being afraid when there is nothing to fear. Umberto Eco, author and professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna argues in many of his novels effectively, particularly Foucault’s Pendulum, that effect can precede cause. It is there, in the transition where effect and cause change places, where worlds are created and fiction made truth.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]This article marked the beginning of my academic endeavor to prove the reality of fictional worlds. My English 104 professor gave his students the green-light to write about whatever they wished and I knew immediately what my topic would be. I began my research, climbing the proverbial uphill on which people battle and found a flag. A modern-day philosopher named David Lewis had already laid claim to my destiny. He had already theorized that fictional worlds do, in fact, become real (though he hoped he was wrong due to the abhorrent nature of immortal, yet disfigured multiples of one’s self), “What you should predominantly expect, if the no-collapse hypothesis is true, is cumulative deterioration that stops just short of death. … How many lives has Schrödinger’s cat? If there are no collapses, life everlasting. But soon, life is not at all worth living. That, and not the risk of sudden death, is the real reason to pity Schrödinger’s cat (Lewis 15)."[/FONT]
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My discovery of Lewis’ Possible Worlds Theory was bittersweet. I felt vindicated in my belief of fictional worlds existing as real places, but I felt robbed of my victory. Lewis teaches, “'the actual world' means 'the world where I am located', and all possible worlds are actual from the point of view of their inhabitants. All other worlds are the product of mental activity, such as dreaming, imagining, foretelling, promising, or storytelling” (Ryan). Furthermore, in his book, How Many Lives Has Schrödinger’s Cat?, he uses a quantum physics exercise I planned on using to prove my thesis. Therefore, for the remainder of this paper, I shall set out to explain in layman’s terms the quantum physics exercises that may be applied to solidify the belief that fictional worlds are real. While I may not prove that fictional worlds are real, I will grant vindication and hope in those who believe these worlds exist by giving believers the tools they need to stand by their convictions in the face of non-believers; these tools will be backed by science – the very philosophy of the non-believers.[/FONT]
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Before we begin our journey into understanding the existence of fictional realms, I must explain that am not going to argue the many meanings of the word “fiction”. From here-on, when I refer to a fictional realm, I simply mean a world created in fiction: either in literature, film, or dreams, no matter how closely related or distant it seems to or from our own world. Second, we must understand that our physical universe is not the only physical universe. By this, I mean, I set out to open your mind to the possibility of multiple universes – a multiverse; but this does not mean anything will change – the reality you know to be reality will still be reality, but you may no longer believe it to be the only reality. While plural realities would entail a completely other set of papers altogether, we only need to understand that these alternate realities do exist in such a way that we could physically go there. Physicist Michio Kaku confesses:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own ‘pond,’ confident that our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory” (Kaku 5).[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]In this paper, I will introduce you to the exercises that allow you to dabble in the idea of alternate realities. This journey begins with a ray of light.[/FONT]
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Do not let the terms “quantum,” “physics,” and “mechanics” scare and confuse you. This paper is not going to discuss the math and scary technicalities of quantum physics. We will only dabble in some of the concepts that open your mind. Erwin Schrödinger was a quantum physicist and one of the founders of what is today known as quantum mechanics. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933, and in 1935 developed his Cat Thought Experiment. Essentially, he was a mathematician who got paid to do what we often do when we are staring at the stars: fantasize. During his time, physicists encountered a problem of particles and waves. Terms like “particle” and “wave” can be intimidating, so imagine that “particle” means “solid/physical” and “wave” means “energy/motion”. A good example would be that sounds are made of waves and rocks are made of particles. Imagine that everything in the universe was categorized into these two characteristics. The wave/particle distinction was such a solid belief, that it can be compared to life and death in people: people are alive or dead, not both. However, experiments in light developed new problems concerning particles and waves: light was exhibiting both characteristics – an impossibility. This was the Double Slit Experiment.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Imagine an ocean wave passing through a gate with its great up and down motion. If the gate’s horizontal opening is greater than the vertical height of the wave, the wave passes through the gate in a straight line. If the gate’s opening is less than the height of the wave, the wave disperses in a cone-pattern. This is a reality in hydrodynamics and physics, not an analogy.

With this in mind, we can enter the exercise. There are three elements to this exercise: The gun, the card, and the plate. The gun is a tool that fires a single photon (the light particle); the card has two slots marked “A” and “B” through which the particle will be fired (this is also the center of the entire experiment); and the plate is a photosensitive plate through which we will measure our results (where the light lands and marks the plate).[/FONT]
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In preamble of the exercise, cover slot “B” and shine light through slot “A” and you will find that the light disperses throughout the plate in a rectangular pattern (meaning the light lands all over the plate even though it is passing through a single slot). What we have determined is that the photon (which is a particle) behaves like a wave. We have also determined the slot is thinner than the height of the wave characteristic light seems to exhibit. Furthermore, uncover slot “B” and you will find that light shines on the plate in bars of different intensity (meaning the plate will exhibit bars in which light shone brightly, moderately, dimly, and not at all). Previously it was believed that the waves exiting slots “A” and “B” were interacting with each other. Now, physicists know different.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“No known theory can be distorted so as to provide even an approximate explanation [of wave-particle duality]. There must be some fact of which we are entirely ignorant and whose discovery may revolutionize our views of the relations between waves and ether and matter. For the present we have to work on both theories. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we use the wave theory; on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays we think in streams of flying energy quanta or corpuscles” (Bragg 158).[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]During the exercise, cover slot “B” and fire a single photon from the gun through slot “A”; this means we have fired a single bit of light. The photon will land anywhere on the plate is previously measured when we shone light in the preamble. But then uncover “B” and fire a single photon through “A”. When the plate is observed, we will find that it only landed where there would be a bar. Additionally, three miniature bars will be registered from a single photon (as if it were a wave and split through the slots). Fire enough and the same pattern of bar intensity would appear on a larger scale (alternating bars of light and dark composed of thousands of mini bars). The question is, how does the photon passing through “A” know “B” is uncovered and should behave differently without interaction from other light particles? This was a great conundrum made more difficult when devices were installed to observe what was happening at the slots and light started behaving in such a way that it landed anywhere on the plate. Observing light without interacting with it changed its behavior – it was alive and knew it was being watched! Through this experiment, physicists gained one answer: the small distance between the two slots (let’s say it was an arbitrary six inches) may as well been six-hundred-billion miles or six-hundred-billion light-years. Particles here on Earth know what is occurring to particles on Saturn or across the universe in much the same way it knows slot “B” is uncovered. Zukav explains in Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics, [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“physicists like to have tidy theories which explain everything, and if they are not able to do that, they like to have tidy theories about why they can't. The wave-particle duality is not a tidy situation. In fact, its untidiness has forced physicists into radical new ways of perceiving physical reality. ... The wave-particle duality marked the end of the 'Either-Or' way of looking at the world. Physicists no longer could accept the proposition that light is either a particle or a wave because they had proved to themselves that it was both, depending on how they looked at it” (Zukav 45).[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]To solve this conundrum, Schrödinger introduced his cat. Put the Double Slit Experiment aside and forget about it for now, and let us focus on the cat. The cat was not a real cat, so animals were not harmed in this experiment; the cat was an idea, an imaginary cat. Imagine you have a box which may be completely sealed from sight, sound, or any other method of observation. Imagine, also, that you have a cat to place in the box (presumably male with only one life left – color is irrelevant); put him in the box. Now imagine you have a device with a button that, when pressed, has an exactly fifty-percent chance of releasing a deadly gas after ten seconds; press the button and throw the device in the box. After waiting ten seconds, without observing the cat (and never mind the limited air supply), is the cat alive or dead? [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]It must be at least one state, alive or dead, since it cannot be neither. The cat certainly is in a state and not a lack of state. The problem comes in the fact that we cannot observe the cat and must declare a state. What state is the cat in when not being observed? To resolve this problem, Schrödinger proclaimed that the cat is in a wave-superposition state: a complex way of saying the cat is alive and dead at the same time. How does such a hazy idea such as Schrödinger’s Cat easily contradict facts that physicists held true? Schrödinger claims:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot] "It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a ‘blurred model’ for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks” (Schrödinger 338).[/FONT]
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Schrödinger’s Cat behaves much in the way light is both particle and wave (this would eventually be called wave-particle duality). When the box is opened and the cat is observed, the alive/dead states are no longer superimposed and become distinct, and reality splits into two realities: one reality where the cat is dead and another where the cat is alive – much in the way we are observing either a particle reality or a wave reality when observing light. We know both wave and particle realities exist, but can only verify one of them at a time. What we have successfully done is changed or created realities by sheer belief. Furthermore, remember that scientists discovered through the Double Slit Experiment that particles here affect particles across the universe. This Cat Thought Experiment also shows the actions and observations we make transcend and affect particles across the multiverse (and therefore affects other universes).
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[FONT=&quot]With the exercise of the Double Slit Experiment, we have established that multiple realities do exist; through Schrödinger’s Cat Thought Experiment, we have explained the confusing observations in the Double Slit Experiment and established that such worlds can be created and interacted-with by sheer belief.[/FONT]
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Now consider a novel printed by the thousands in which thousands of readers experience, feel, fear, and love a fictional world that only seems to exist in print. When we close the book, we often observe that the cat is dead, but our experiences in the fictional realm, if for a moment, created a belief that the cat was alive. When we close the book and observe the results (therefore changing them), we create a separate realm where the cat still lives and the fictional realm remains a real one and can interact with such realms with our beliefs and thoughts. Additionally (as I proposed in “121 Cubits”), when we establish new ideas about fictional realms, we change their entire timeline, past, present and future, in much the same way we discover and change things about our history; the conundrum created by our ability to change these realms is easily resolved.[/FONT]
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Certainly this warrants further research, and quantum physics is a good place to perform such research, but a great place to start is to let go of the idea that our reality is the only one. Other realities have already proven to exist through the behavior of light; the next step is to open yourself to the possibility that such realities are the products of your dreams, promises, ideas, and works of fiction.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Notes[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]1 In 2011, a new room was found in the pyramids of Giza. The shaft that led to the room contained writing which had not been viewed in 4,500 years. They were hieratic numerical signs reading from right to left, meaning 100, 20, and 1. The builders had recorded the total length of the shaft: 121 cubits.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Works Cited[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Bergmann, Gustav. “Physics and Ontology.” Philosophy of Science 28.1 (1961): 1-14. Print.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Bragg, Sir William. “’Electrons and Ether Waves.’ The Robert Boyle Lecture 1921.” Scientific [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Monthly[/FONT][FONT=&quot] 14 (1922): 158. Print. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Diamond, Dr. Stephen. “Redefining Reality: Psychology, Science and Solipsism.” Evil Deeds A [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Forensic Psychologist on Anger, Madness and Destructive Behavior.[/FONT][FONT=&quot] 2010. Print[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Kaku, Michio. Hyperspace : A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]the 10th Dimension[/FONT][FONT=&quot], Anchor, 1995. Print. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Lewis, David. “How Many Lives Has Schrödinger's Cat? The Estate of David Kellogg Lewis.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Australasian Journal of Philosophy[/FONT][FONT=&quot] 82.1 (2004): 3-22. Print.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]NeverEnding Story, The[/FONT][FONT=&quot]. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen, Perf. Noah Hathaway. Warner Bros., 1984. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Film. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Ryan, Marie-Laure. Possible-worlds Theory. Entry for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Theory. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Schrödinger, Erwin. “Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik.” [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Naturwissenschaften[/FONT][FONT=&quot] (1935). Print[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. New York: Bantam [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Books, 1980. Print.[/FONT]

 

[howandwhy99]

A realist would say, mental concepts become physically existent in the real world through their conception. We either create an imagining of a tree or receive the image of a tree and that tree then exists in our brains while we conceive of it. Belief claims either truth or falseness in reference, usually about whether a concept exists 'out there' in the world - and for a realist that would mean beyond one's own brain. For instance, does the tree I see exist, is it an optical illusion, or is it my own imagining? I can't be sure one way or another, but I may hold more or less strong beliefs for each case. Plus, a would realist would believe the conception of the tree certainly exists in the real world within the portion that makes up his or her mind. For a realist, there is certainly an external reality and one's mind is part of it.

Believing isn't necessary for existence as much as persistent reflection upon a concept sustains its existence in the brain. Memory is more important for the existence of a concept than is belief. As I said above, existence 'out there' of the referent is what belief is usually about. Belief or disbelief are the same thing in this case, only one holds the referent as existent and the other as nonexistent. So belief or disbelief are more about commitment to particular concepts rather than the conceptualizing creation of them.

 

[Aramax]

I CAN prove THAT MY d&d WORLD DOES NOT EXIST.iF IT DID POWERFUL WIZARDS AND/OR ADVENTURERS WOULD HAVE COME TO THIS WORLD AND THREATENED/BRIBED ME TO MAKE IT WAY LESS HORRIBLE!1000 gP WOULD GO REAL FAR IN OUR WORLD.If your hypothisis is that all fictional worlds are real,this ABSOLUTLY disproves it.

 

[kitsune9]

Interesting topic HR. I have no real opinion on it myself, but the arguments presented are an interesting read.

 

[Shemeska]

Quantum mysticism oh boy, the otherkin will love it. Otherwise meh.

 

[jonesy]

I think you've got several leaps of logic there that each have several other possible options you've disregarded for the sake of reaching the goal of your argument, but even if it were completely wrong it would still be an interesting philosophical discussion.

 

[HRSegovia]

I CAN prove THAT MY d&d WORLD DOES NOT EXIST.iF IT DID POWERFUL WIZARDS AND/OR ADVENTURERS WOULD HAVE COME TO THIS WORLD AND THREATENED/BRIBED ME TO MAKE IT WAY LESS HORRIBLE!1000 gP WOULD GO REAL FAR IN OUR WORLD.If your hypothisis is that all fictional worlds are real,this ABSOLUTLY disproves it.

What you are forgetting is that it is not possible for one realm to enter another. Current theory states that it would take all the energy in a known universe to open a hole small enough for a few particles to pass through - and that's about it. However, particles in this realm know what is going on (and therefore affect) particles in other realms, which means interaction.

 

[HRSegovia]

I think you've got several leaps of logic there that each have several other possible options you've disregarded for the sake of reaching the goal of your argument, but even if it were completely wrong it would still be an interesting philosophical discussion.

I would LOVE to have written an entire dissertation on this, but i was limited to 7 pages (and still ended up with 10). Had I more room, I probably would have detailed and laid-it out a little better. But thank you! I really appreciate ALL your responses.

 

[HRSegovia]

A realist would say, mental concepts become physically existent in the real world through their conception. We either create an imagining of a tree or receive the image of a tree and that tree then exists in our brains while we conceive of it. Belief claims either truth or falseness in reference, usually about whether a concept exists 'out there' in the world - and for a realist that would mean beyond one's own brain. For instance, does the tree I see exist, is it an optical illusion, or is it my own imagining? I can't be sure one way or another, but I may hold more or less strong beliefs for each case. Plus, a would realist would believe the conception of the tree certainly exists in the real world within the portion that makes up his or her mind. For a realist, there is certainly an external reality and one's mind is part of it.

Believing isn't necessary for existence as much as persistent reflection upon a concept sustains its existence in the brain. Memory is more important for the existence of a concept than is belief. As I said above, existence 'out there' of the referent is what belief is usually about. Belief or disbelief are the same thing in this case, only one holds the referent as existent and the other as nonexistent. So belief or disbelief are more about commitment to particular concepts rather than the conceptualizing creation of them.

Another theorist! Phenomenal!

 

[Richards]

As I recall, Roger Zelazny's Amber series kind of works that way: given an infinite multiverse, where whatever universe you could possibly imagine exists somewhere, the Amber princes need only visualize a universe to be able to transport themselves to that universe. It was a pretty interesting series (actually there were two, each a series of five novels if I recall correctly).

Johnathan